DeMarco Murray retire after 7 seasons.

[Lord McBuckethead]

Wow. Didn't see that one coming. He was a good back. Should have stayed in Dallas.

[ShotgunDawg]

Wow. Didn't see that one coming. He was a good back. Should have stayed in Dallas.

He made about $27.7 mil in his career & all but $3.6 mil of that AFTER HE LEFT DALLAS

For a position in which the average career length is 3 years, I'd say he made the right decision to leave Dallas.

[Cooterpoot]

He had 10 seasons in one in Dallas. Put a lot of miles on his body.

[sleepy dawg]

He had 10 seasons in one in Dallas. Put a lot of miles on his body.

You got that right man. He was put through the ringer there.

[Bully13]

Tough way to make a living fo sho. Has some damned nice $ benefits but physically, just damn. Did business for a while back in the day with someone who played OL at La Tech with Willie Roaf. Got invited to a NFL camp and got knocked the 17 out for the first time in his life on the field. Said he'd never been hit that hard and to make it worse, it was done by a safety. He didn't last much longer in camp and knew then the NFL was not going to work.

[ShotgunDawg]

Tough way to make a living fo sho. Has some damned nice $ benefits but physically, just damn. Did business for a while back in the day with someone who played OL at La Tech with Willie Roaf. Got invited to a NFL camp and got knocked the 17 out for the first time in his life on the field. Said he'd never been hit that hard and to make it worse, it was done by a safety. He didn't last much longer in camp and knew then the NFL was not going to work.

The NFL is a savage way to make a living.

Not to tie this back to recruiting, but for a guy like Jerrion Ealy, there should absolutely no question which sport he should choose. The average NFL RB's career is 3 years, meanwhile, a guy like Billy Hamilton, who is a bit rangier than Ealy & a half step faster, but Ealy has significantly more power than, has already played 6 years in MLB & made 8.8 million dollars with free agency & the chance for a big payday, right around the corner. Additionally, he's only 27 & can probably play another 5-8 years easy

[dawgs]

Yeah if you have a kid that's a great athlete, push the kid to play pretty much any sport besides football. Unless they are a QB, there's simply not enough $$ (compared to other pro sports) and long term security to offset the long term health issues. I love watching football but everyday I find it a bit harder to fully invest knowing what happens to these guys at the end of the day.

[sleepy dawg]

Yeah if you have a kid that's a great athlete, push the kid to play pretty much any sport besides football. Unless they are a QB, there's simply not enough $$ (compared to other pro sports) and long term security to offset the long term health issues. I love watching football but everyday I find it a bit harder to fully invest knowing what happens to these guys at the end of the day.

Most sports are pretty dangerous really. I think your best bet is golf, baseball, or basketball. Any sport that has a high chance of being hit in the head (football or boxing or soccer), or goes really fast (biking or autoracing) or requires your body to be put in extreme situations (gymnastics or football) have very high risk of serious injuries.

Baseball position players probably have about as low injury risk as any sport activity you can play. Play baseball.

[dawgs]

Well boxing has diminished in prestige and participation over the last 50 years because of the head trauma. Soccer doesn't have the constant hitting your head on literally every play that football does either. It's not the big hit that leaves someone's brain scambled at a young age, it's the constant hitting your head 60+ times a game over years that adds up. That's why you don't see soccer players with the same kinda early onset brain trauma as football players. Other than boxing (which I already pointed out is extremely diminished from what it was) and ufc stuff (still a niche sport), no other sport is designed where heads are go through as much trauma every single game as football. There's no way to have football as we know it without head trauma either. You can't have lineman not block smash into each other, you can't have defenses not tackle the ball carrier. The game is just inherently tied with head trauma. Hockey has some issues too, but they've put rules in place to limit the amount of hitting on guys, and the game is still hockey because shoving some guy from behind into the boards isn't intrinsic to how the game must be played to remain recognizable.

Anecdotally speaking, I played football (OL and DL) in junior high and HS at a ms private school in the 90s, so primarily going against a bunch of slow kids on the line that weighed like 200-250 lbs. hardly elite athletes. I used to get excruciating headaches as a teenager, I just assumed that was normal cause I didn't know better. I never had any concussion (or at least no major ones where you are disoriented and confused) and was never knocked out. Fast forward 18 years later and I only get headaches when I drink more than I should. Looking back I know those headaches in HS were a result of playing football. I couldn't imagine what it'd be like against guys much bigger, faster, and stronger.

Sure guys might have arthritic knees or shoulders or whatever from baseball or basketball, but physical pain ain't the same as having the brain of a 90 year old at the age of 40 like we see with former nfl players.

[Mutt the Hoople]

Reggie Jackson was one of the top High School running backs in the country when he signed with Arizona State in the '60's. Took one look at Frank Cush's practices and decided to stick with baseball. Played in the Majors 21 seasons.

He tried to get Bo Jackson to solely concentrate on baseball. Football destroyed Jackson's health.